Kontz, 34, will be held without bail until a hearing can be held to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to seek the death penalty. Her arrest punctuates a nearly four-year investigation into the Dec. 2, 2000, death of Eric D. Miller, a Raleigh AIDS researcher.

With tears in her eyes, Kontz said nothing as she was surrounded by news photographers on her way into the Wake County Public Safety Center. Kontz was flanked by her attorneys, Wade Smith and Joseph B. Cheshire V. The procession was nearly silent approaching the building.

Just inside the lobby, Raleigh detectives stopped her, handcuffed her and led her back outside to an unmarked car waiting across Salisbury Street. Her hands were clenched behind her back and her expression was wide-eyed and flushed. When Cheshire signaled to her "Are you OK?" she nodded, holding back tears.

A Wake County grand jury returned the indictment Monday afternoon, but neither police nor prosecutors disclosed any new evidence in the case that had led to the jury's action. It came, however, four months to the day after prosecutors obtained a statement that they said implicated a suspect in Miller's death.

Retired Raleigh Police Lt. Chris Morgan, one of the lead investigators, testified Monday before the grand jury and later watched the arrest of Kontz.

Morgan said the long investigation caused a lot of pain to Miller's family.

"I mean it's one thing if your son or your daughter or whoever is murdered by a stranger, but we know and we've said from the beginning a stranger couldn't have done this," said Morgan, who had delayed his retirement to see this investigation through. "Most people don't get served food -- and what you give people arsenic with -- by strangers."

Afterward, Cheshire said, "We're very sad for Ann. Wade and I intend to do everything that we can to help her prove her innocence."

An hour later, Kontz appeared before a magistrate. Told she would be held without bail, she was escorted back to the jail.

Mysterious illness

Miller, 30, died after suffering for two weeks with a mysterious illness that stumped doctors until arsenic was discovered in his system shortly before he died.

"The police department has been involved in a long, careful investigation. Now we can move forward in the courts," said Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby.

Willoughby would not say whether he will seek the death penalty against Kontz.

News of the indictment brought some relief to Miller's friends and family in his hometown, Cambridge City, Ind.

"To those of us who hold Eric Miller and his family close to our hearts, the news of Ann's indictment was such welcome news, and, at least, progresses one step toward solving this horrendous injustice," wrote a family friend, Phoebe Jordan, in an e-mail to The News & Observer after seeing the story of Kontz's indictment.

In the four years since her husband died, Ann Miller moved to Wilmington and married a Christian rock musician, Paul Martin Kontz.

The tale of Miller's death and the suspected motives behind it could be material for a made-for-TV movie.

The Millers met in a biology class at Purdue University. Both were accepted into graduate programs at N.C. State University, relocated to the Triangle and married in 1993. Eric was a postdoctoral fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, while Ann worked at GlaxoSmithKline in Research Triangle Park.

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